Have all the feels as the Thunder season ends, but remember to be excited, too

Anger, frustration and even sadness are fine, but consider what might come next.

Go ahead and feel disappointed about the Thunder losing to the Mavericks.

Or you can feel mad. Or sad. Or discouraged. Or depressed.

All of those emotions are perfectly acceptable.

But after Saturday night's 117-116 loss in Dallas ended Oklahoma City's season, another emotion came to my mind: excitement. Not excitement about how the Thunder blew a 17-point second-half lead. Not excitement over how the Thunder repeatedly got outrebounded by the Mavs; the deficit was 16 in Game 6. Not excitement about there being no more Thunder games this season.

That last one, my friends, is a complete and total bummer.

No, the excitement bubbles up from this thought: where might the Thunder go from here?

That game and this series could be the catalyst for many things.

First, they could solidify in the mind of general manager Sam Presti what this team needs. A beefy big man seems increasingly like a must-have for the Thunder. It struggled with the Mavs' size — size partially acquired at the trade deadline with Daniel Gafford — and frankly, if the Thunder had survived the Mavs and moved on to the Western Conference Finals against the Nuggets or the Timberwolves, the Thunder would've struggled with their size. 

The Western Conference is filled with talented bigs. While the Thunder has a promising talented big in Chet Holmgren, it needs more help. He needs more help.

That wasn't obvious during the regular season when the Thunder won 57 games, but in the postseason? It slapped the Thunder in the face.

Now it's up to Presti and Co. to fortify that weakness either through the draft or trades. Seeing how Presti works is always fun, but now with a clear vision of what's needed and all the draft picks and assets he has at his disposal, watching Presti work will be exciting.

Also exciting will be seeing how the experience of this playoff run impacts the players.

It will undoubtedly impact them individually. The confidence of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort should go to another level; both were masterful throughout the playoffs. 

But the drive of guys like Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren should be high after these past few weeks. Yes, both had some great moments, but both had some struggles, especially shooting behind the arc. Those disappointments will push them in the offseason.

I'm excited to see how they'll improve.

There's also the collective impact that this playoff run is sure to have on this team. We've all heard about how young this Thunder team was. Heard it so much that we may have become a little immune to it. 

But I heard a stat before the playoffs that stuck with me: the Thunder's starters (when Josh Giddey was in that starting lineup) entered the postseason with less playoff experience combined than Jayson Tatum had ... from his rookie season.

There's this stat in the NBA called "weighted age." It combines average age and minutes played to determine a more accurate age of a team. Like a real age. Or a true age.

By weighted age, the youngest team to ever win an NBA title was the 1977 Trailblazers at 24.2 years.

The Thunder's weighted age this season: 22.7 years.

But here's the thing, even if Presti goes out and gets a veteran or two, this Thunder team is still going to be young for the next few years. The best way to overcome youth is with talent and experience.

Talent, the Thunder has, and it'll keep getting better.

Experience, the Thunder got these past few weeks.

No one would confuse this bunch for grizzled playoff veterans, but it knows way more now than it did when the playoffs began. It knows what it feels like when you have a chance to close out a series and when you have a chance to be closed out. It knows the pressure of fourth-quarter possessions and the importance of all-quarter ones. It knows the emotions and sounds and feelings of moments that can't be replicated anywhere other than the playoffs.

That's bound to have an impact on the whole.

I'm excited to see how this experience will resonate.

Listen, you can what-if till you want to curl up in the fetal position. What if Presti had gotten a big man at the trade deadline? What if Holmgren or Dort or J-Dub had made a few more threes against the Mavs? What if Mark Daigneault had shaken up the starting lineup earlier? 

What if?

Any of those questions are as legit as feelings of disappointment and despair. 

Just remember, the Thunder made strides no one expected, winning 57 games, improving by 17 victories and earning the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Now, this bunch gets to add this playoff experience to the mix.

What they did without that experience was exciting.

Sure makes the possibility of what they could do with it even more so.